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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Anonymous said... I wonder if buying this stuff over
the internet gets official notice. I also wouldn't be surprised if a
zealous prosecutor used your body armor against you after a home
burglary gone bad. Wouldn't they try to convince a jury you were looking
to have a shootout with the criminal? I'm not opposed to body armor, I'm seriously asking questions and would love to hear other people's opinions. y.g.

I
think that while you may come across a stupid prosecutor in the case of
body armor, there should be no doubt: It literally catches a bullet
that would probably kill you if it didn’t, so its clearly better to
explain yourself while alive than avoid the possibility of explaining
something that you are legally entitled to do anyway, and be dead.You
are right though about something. The second amendment covers guns, not
armor, so regulations are very much possible. I’d get armor while I can
and if anyone comes asking, which is highly unlikely, then there’s a
chance you may have sold it by then, or lost it in a fishing trip.

Anonymous said...
I'm confused about the life-span of the soft vests. Kevlar, although it
expires in 5 years or so, has been tested to be good many years later.
There are complaints on the internet, however, about some of the
laminated fabrics like Goldflex and Twaron delaminating. If I
convinced myself and my wife to get a vest, I wouldn't want something
that's going bad in a few years. Especially if body armor is legally
unavailable some time in the future. Does anyone know where to get well built kevlar vests for a reasonable price? y.g.

Zylon
is the material to be avoided. It has some serious failures and NIJ
decertified all vests containing Zylon. Goldflex® is an aramid like
Kevlar®, and makes for thinner (up to 35% thinner) yet effective vests.
It tends to be more expensive than Kevlar as well, but due to being
thinner and flexible its well suited for concealed armor. The debate on
laminated or not is rather academic. No matter what brand name of aramid
its made of, no vest is intended to take multiple shots in a same area
anyway. If you’re lucky enough to survive getting shot a bunch of times,
then count your blessing and buy a new vest.

Don Williams said...
1) I think the 5 years refers to 5 years of police-like use --i.e worn
constantly 8-10 hours per day soaked in perspiration and in contact with
a 98.6 deg F human body. I would think that Intermittent use would
extend that working life well out past 5 years.
2) To mimick such
usages, the latest NIJ Testing protocol --NIJ 0101.06, adopted 2006 --
added a conditioning treatment to body armor in which it is tested for
bullet resistance after 10 days of being tumbled in a drum, 5 revolutions per minute for a total of 72,000 tumbles. At 80% humidity and 149 deg F. Ref: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/223054.pdf
3)
Maybe Fernando would like to give his opinion/experience on some
details of selection criteria for body armor. A lot of police get killed
wearing body armor --as shown in the FBI report -- because crooks now
know they are wearing it and go for head shots. So it seems to me it
would be important to conceal the armor because it loses much value if
an attacker can see you are wearing it.
4) On the other hand,
level IIIA is not much thicker than level II and IIIA can stop some
penetrating rounds like 357 Magnum in FMJ (level II just tests 357 in
JSP), 38 super, 357 sig. I don't know if IIIA can stop the 7.62 Tokarov
round but I would think it would do better than II.
5) In hot
climates, however, Level II would probably be more easily concealed
under hot weather light weight shirts. Some argue it is not as hot as
IIIA but I wonder whether heat is more a matter of whether the sides are
left open for ventilation. Some armor wraps around to cover the sides
below the armpit but I would think that adds heat while the shoulder
opening to the heart is left unprotected.
6) Level II vs IIIA is
Tough decision -- like the 45 vs 9mm argument. One survey of USA police
that I've seen indicated 41% of police use Level II and 35% use IIIA. No
indication of whether the IIIA people are in the colder north and II
people are in the South. Or if regular patrol police in uniform wear
IIIA while undercover cops wear II since body armor is a tipoff that one
is a policeman (US law bans convicted felons from owning body armor.)

1)
True. Police officers wear their vests all the time. Lots of wear and
tear, sweat and sunlight exposure. For the average person, you wont use
and abuse a vest nearly as much and it will last decades if properly
taken care of (avoid moisture, too much sunlight)3)There is a chance
of getting shot in the head if armor is being visibly worn. My advice
is to keep it concealed as much as you can so as to avoid just that as
well as attracting unwanted attention in general.4)IIIA would do
better against all rounds including 7.62 Tokarov. The 7.62 Tokarov is a
small, fast round that has a good chance of penetrating level II armor.
When possible I would go for IIIA. 5)Armor can get really hot, but
then again if you’re not a cop its no big deal and you can just suck it
up when you consider its important to wear it. For everyday carry
though, it can be an issue and its better to get armor that fits well
but allows enough ventilation.6)Most police officers are likely to
go for II because it is still enough to stop the threats they are likely
to come across while being less bulky and more comfortable to wear in
general. Now as a civilian that isnt wearing armor every day you may not
have such concerns.

I'm stating the obvious but One thing to note is that some women need body armor tailored for their physique -- more available now because of female cops.

There may be two armor sections in a female vest -- one that folds over the breast and joins with another section the covers the stomach. One source I've seen says that there should be a 1 inch overlap at the seam where the two sections connect below the breasts

However, other makers take other approachs. NIJ has special requirements that female vests have to pass (re integrity of seams,etc) so if the vest has NIJ 0101.06 certification I would that it would be okay.

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Emergency gadget

Both tool and weapon, just the right size

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Gorilla Tape

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Transportation

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Emergency blankets. I Have several of these around.

Katadyn water filter

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Got to have water: Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel

Moleskine, the ultimate little black cover notebook :)

Fenix L0D-CE. Perfect keychain light. 80 Lumens in a single AAA

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Sabre Red OC spray

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My wife keeps one in her purse too.
Sabre Red Tear Gas
Sabre Red for ladies
You guys have the coolest stuff up there.:)

Jack Bauer’s bag.:) I’d like to get one of these and try it out.

Fox OC Spray

Don’t have this one but it’s the hottest OC spray out there.
Someone once called it “bottled lava”
Pick your poison people, but do carry OC
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Firesteel

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